Very realistic Attitude ive been cutting stone for 30 years plus. Ive been to loads of Stone shows and had a good look at various machines. All of the machines ive looked at use rack and pinion for the X But couldn't see the Y because of the Accordian cover (but information given some are rack some are not) z was Ballscrew and roller bearing slides (which I have seen failing on at least three machines less than 5 years old)..
My base line is an Accuracy 0.5 better than that would be great.
as for milling stone That's easy, as Ive built Machines pushed by hand they worked to what I needed.
No granite worktops I hate them.
My dinner money comes from restoration of older buildings of which are limestone and sandstone is easy cut with diamond.
the main aim is to have a machine to mill out profiles for window sills, string courses and coping stones. so any machine that has a 3 axis and can take a piece of stone 1600mm x 600mm and 200mm would do the job,
But its a case of always make the best you can. all the older granite slab machines have cast Todays are coming from Italy and china and have brake pressed steel 6 or 8 mm.
Reasons Ive joined is for help with
Decisions I haven't made are Spindle spec in KW but will probably go for 2-or 3 as water cooling and dust suppression are a Must but speed of cut is not as long as it cuts as fast as one person continuous.
the Rails which also been looking at but either make my own or buy in roller bearing slides.
the Backlash and its ascossiated problems are the biggest challenge I note Ballscrews are Good but length of machine .
I have a 2 ton Cast iron sliding bramley saw table so the bed isn't a problem. what is is making sure it works.